Tears Of A Fallen Angel
by 987654
Summary: The tears of a fallen angel drip down his cheeks, Why didn't you fight back? Naruto... Sakura looked on and felt her heart breaking...


  
Tears Of A Fallen Angel 

Haruno Sakura stopped at the feeling she was getting.

At twenty-three, she was an experienced ninja, having been trained by some of the best ninja of her time.

Sakura knew this feeling; she'd had it a lot of times in the last eight years, sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes in the middle of an important mission.

Every time she went.

Every time she felt him she went, simply because she knew he needed her, whether he knew it or not.

He needed the company.

And she would gladly give it.

Sakura walked slowly back to her house, knowing that he wouldn't leave for a long time yet. She could afford to take the time to at least put her groceries away.

She stopped on the way as she saw two little boys playing in a sandpit, one of them crying, the other holding him, trying to calm him down, saying

'I'm sorry, I didn't mean it!"

Sakura smiled sadly, and walked over to the two boys and crouched down.

"Hello there, what seems to be the matter?" She said with a small smile gracing her lips.

The boy who was crying managed to get out a few incoherent words before his comrade spoke up for him.

"I- I called him stupid because he was saying stu-" The boy paused and then said, "Because he was saying stuff that I thought wasn't true. He started crying, and I really didn't mean it, I just thought it was stupid!" Sakura could see that the young boy was close to tears himself.

Sakura remembered a time when she was this inocent, and all that anyone had to worry about was who they were going to play with today.

"What was he saying?" Sakura asked lightly. The boy that had been crying sniffed.

"That the statue on the Hokage monument was put there because a boy was sad since his friend didn't like him anymore." Sakura looked away, tears gathering in her own eyes.

Once she was sure that she was composed enough not to burst into hysterical sobs of grief, she said to the little boy,

"There are a lot of stories about that monument, but there's only one that is true. But you'll learn about that later on in life, when you're ready to know what happened eight years ago. For the time being, all you need to know is how important your family is. How important your friends are. They need you, and you need them." They both nodded in earnest, thinking how wise this lady was.

As Sakura walked away, she whispered, "They're so easy to lose."

Once she had reached her home, she opened her door and put the bags of food down onto her kitchen bench. She sighed heavily.

Opening one of the cupboards, Sakura thought back to when she was their age, totally innocent, totally unaware of the trials that she would face as a teenager and as an adult. At their age she'd had no idea of the pain that would accompany all her life, from the time she was fifteen.

Eight years is a long time to carry a burden as big as the one she did.

Sakura put down the box of cereal she was in the process of putting away and sighed, looking out the window towards the Hokage monument. The tears of a life past had been threatening to come up for some time. She expected that her visit today wouldn't help.

Finished with unpacking her groceries, Sakura went into her bedroom to put on a jacket, as the nights were now cold and she didn't know how late she would be out.

_As long as it takes._ She thought to herself as she shrugged the jacket on.

Locking her door behind her, Haruno Sakura started the long walk up to the surrounding forest near the village. The walk was a long one, but the scenery was all-but worth it and it also gave her the space she needed and the time to think without interruption.

Long ago, they would walk this path, simply talking, sometimes racing, and sometimes fighting.

Well, they would be fighting, _she_ would be refereeing. Sakura let herself laugh at the fond memory before it turned into sad memory after sad memory.

She sighed after her laughter, as she did so often nowadays.

She looked to the moon, hanging low in the sky tonight, shinning, as she knew it would be.

The moon seemed to shine brighter on these nights, as if it was remembering the bright light that once graced this life. As if it was sad for the departed.

As Sakura neared the clearing, she once again doubted whether this was a good idea, as she did every time.

And every time she knew the answer.

No, she shouldn't be doing this, but she did anyway.

He _needed_ her. She wasn't going to abandon him in his time of need. Even if he would never know.

Once again, a sigh fell from her lips, this time making an audible sound.

She had reached the clearing.

The clearing that had been the heart of all her pain for eight years.

As it did every time she saw him, the image of Uchiha Sasuke broke her heart into a million peaces.

It took all of her breath away in one foul swoop, tearing all of her walls that she had built down in a second.

The pain was unbearable.

The night seemed to comfort the scene before her, placate it somehow.

_I guess it's just how it was meant to be._

As soon as she had thought that, Sakura regretted it.

Nothing was as it was meant to be.

Sakura walked up to Sasuke and sat down beside him. As always, he didn't notice her. For once this didn't bother her. It didn't even surprise her. She knew that he would never again look at her, never again acknowledge her, and she had come to accept that.

Sasuke didn't cry, he never had. Her and Naruto had never once seen him cry. And yet, here he sat, tears dripping down his angelic face, its warm trails the only sign that the Uchiha had tears dripping down his sculpted features.

As she so often did, Sakura heard Sasuke calling for him. Asking why he had gone, why he had left him, why he hadn't fought back.

He never got an answer.

Sakura reached out to her one and only love and touched the spot where his face was. As usual, all she felt was the cold air.

And that cut her deeper than any wound ever had.

Shifting so she was more comfortable, she put her hands in front of her knees, her fingertips barely grazing the grass. Beside her she could hear Sasuke crying, asking why he never had the guts to fight him.

Naruto never had like fighting Sasuke.

So he never did.

"Naruto, why? Why couldn't you have just hated me? Why couldn't you have just fought back?" Sasuke whispered with so much pain that Sakura didn't know if someone could feel so much pain and live through it.

A tear of her own found it's way down her cheek, giving her the only warmth that she would feel tonight.

She knew how much the blond had meant to Sasuke.

The battle had been horrific; Naruto had refused to fight his best friend.

Attack after attack, Naruto had simply taken every hit that the Uchiha threw at him.

In the end, the wounds had been too much for the young male to handle.

He had died in Sasuke's arms.

Sometime during the fight, Sasuke seemed to realize what he was doing.

Just like that, Orochimaru's grip was broken.

But at the cost of Sasuke's best friend.

Sakura knew how it felt to lose someone she cared about; she had experienced it first hand. But she only understood why he did it after he did it. And even then, it had taken her a long time to come to terms with it.

When Sasuke had plunged that kunai straight into his own heart…

Her heart broke.

She had lost them both.

Now Sasuke wandered.

He never could forgive himself for killing his best friend, so he damned himself to eternal pain. He came to the clearing, _this_ clearing every once in a while to grieve for his fallen comrade, always asking 'why'.

And now, as she looked on at the scene, Sasuke shedding tears that would have never left his eyes in life, Naruto's flame extinguished before it's time, and her, all alone, she couldn't help but feel as if all hope died. She had lost everything that meant anything to her.

As Sasuke started to fade, Sakura saw something that made her cry, and for the first time since they died, it wasn't from grief.

It was a hand.

Reaching down for Sasuke.

And on the other end was Naruto.

Sakura saw Sasuke mouth _'why?'_ to the blond.

Naruto simply smiled and said, "It's time to move on."

Sakura's tears were freely flowing down her face as Naruto turned to look at her.

"Thanks, my friend."

Sakura nodded and then Sasuke turned and saw her for the first time.

As they both faded, she could see the words forming on Sasuke's lips.

_Sorry._

Sakura, finally able to rest, left the clearing.

_I hope you find what you're looking for._

_I hope you rest in peace Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke._

_I hope you find those Fields of Hope_

_Beneath a veil so cold, __  
__You deeply sleep, all alone __  
__The melody of prayer; on the lonely fields, __  
__a little light shined_

_I watched as you dreamed __  
__You laughed like a child __  
__So dear, and yet so far - __  
__That is the promise of our future_

_That one-day, on a green morning, __  
__One day, we will make it there __  
__Because in this wintered sky __  
__We still believe __  
__Fields of Hope_

_On the day we were born, we were embraced __  
__And now we search for those gentle hands again __  
__The melody of prayer; one vanishes, __  
__And all begins again; a powerless, painful continuation_

_One day, to that green morning, __  
__We'll cross through all these nights __  
__Because that is the place each one of us searches for_

_Now, within my own heart, __  
__I want to keep you warm __  
__So dear, and yet so far - __  
__In the name of peace __  
__Fields of Hope_

_So dear, and yet so far - __  
__The fields of promise __  
__Fields of Hope __  
__Fields of Hope_

In a village not to far from the one hidden in the leaves, two children played happily in a sandpit. One was a dark-haired boy with dark eyes, and the other was a blond with vibrant blue eyes full of life.

But as they played a voice resounded inside their heads. All it said was…

_I hope you find those Fields Of Hope, and always remember…_

_The tears of the fallen Angel._


End file.
